Chinese scientists control nature

Rain during the Beijing Summer Olympics in 2008 a problem? Never. China has rounded up over 1,500 "weather controllers" to combat the evils of mother nature during humanity’s times of need. If rain, hail, sleet, or snow should rear their ugly heads during China’s moment of international glory, officials will launch these buggers into the atmosphere. They will seek out clouds, forcing premature precipitation and preventing water from reaching the ground. The devices have already been relatively successful when used to stimulate or curb inclement weather for agricultural purposes, having stopped hail from falling over a 1/2 million square miles of land, and stimulated over 250 billion tons of rain. Weather control is all well and good, but when will scientists get around to actually "inventing" those hover boards from Back To The Future? Wake me up when that happens and I’ll truly be impressed.

Does anyone believe this? Even if cloud seeding for hail or rain mitigation can be effective to this degree, doesn’t it seem strange that they claim such an advanced application when the rest of the world has not yet demonstrated that it can even work?

Or is there published research that has since demonstrated this extraordinary claim?